DUSHANBE, January 14, 2015, Asia-Plus – Long-term observers of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) will arrive in Tajikistan in late January, Abdumannon Dodozoda, the head of the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda (CCER)’s office, told Asia-Plus today.
According to him, eleven ODIH long-term observers will arrive in Tajikistan to monitor various aspects of the 2015 parliamentary elections.
More than 500 international observers are expected to arrive in the country to monitor the parliamentary elections that will take place on March 1.
We will recall that OSCE/ODIHR undertook a Needs Assessment Mission (NAM) to Tajikistan from October 27 to October 29, 2014. The NAM included Richard Lappin, OSCE/ODIHR Senior Election Adviser, Alexey Gromov, OSCE/ODIHR Election Adviser, and Maria Chepurina, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Program Officer.
Long-term observers are deployed to the regions of a country, usually for around six to eight weeks. The core team is complemented by a number of election experts offered to the ODIHR by OSCE participating States, who are deployed to regional centers throughout the country. Long-term observers must have the appropriate election experience and should be capable of objective analysis. They meet regularly with local officials, as well as with representatives of political parties and non-governmental organizations, in order to contribute their regional findings to the ODIHR”s overall reporting on the pre-election period. LTOs spend six to eight weeks observing and assessing the election administration, implementation of the law and other regulations, the conduct of the campaign, and the political environment – in essence, carrying out the same sort of observation and reporting activities in the regions that the core team is doing in the capital.
